UN Sustainable Development Goals

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments

Customer - Treating all customers fairly and supporting customers in vulnerable circumstances

Initiatives 

• Our Take Charge campaign supports customers who may be at risk of fuel poverty and with a transition to low carbon technologies. We aim to
• help customers get expert, tailored advice to help them take charge of their household bills and energy costs. It could help customers save over £300 a year on their energy bills.
• Our Extra Care Service ensures vulnerable customers have the extra support and help during a power cut or incident.  
• We are supporting our customers to ensure no one is left behind in the transition to a greener future.
• We achieved Vulnerability Inclusive Service accreditation BS ISO 22458 for inclusive service and are now one of the only distribution network operators to have achieved it in the first year of ED2.
• Read more about our efforts against these targets in our Ofgem annual vulnerability report.

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Customer - Treating all customers fairly and supporting customers in vulnerable circumstances

People - Supporting the wellbeing of our colleagues 

People - Embedding a safety-first culture

Initiatives 

We seek to provide additional care, support, and advice to our customers to ensure that we are well placed to respond to their present and future needs. We go above and beyond to ensure our customers receive the help they need during a power cut through our extra care service and winter preparedness campaigns, leveraging a network of trusted partners who share our commitment to our customers' wellbeing and safety. Additionally, our offer of free low carbon advice is designed to provide customers with the information and understanding they need to confidently explore low carbon technologies. 

The health and wellbeing of our colleagues is a key business priority. Our wellbeing purpose sets out our ambition that colleagues ‘go home tonight as health and as happy as [they] were when [they] arrived this morning, if not better’. Quarterly wellbeing campaigns focus on aspects of mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing and regular training, driving a safety-first culture and an Employee Assistance Programme contribute to the organisation’s overall approach to colleague wellbeing. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Communities - Inspiring the next generation and building future skills 

People - Being a responsible employer

People - Having a workforce that represents our communities

Initiatives 

We recognise the important role we have as the electricity network operator for the North West of England to educate young people about staying safe around electricity and our infrastructure, while sparking their curiosity in STEM subjects and in future careers with us or in STEM more broadly.  

Every year, thousands of KS2 and KS3 pupils participate in our education outreach programmes, which have been builtd around key curriculum teaching for electricity. The programmes are a key part of our talent pipeline – ultimately supporting our focused recruitment and our award-winning apprenticeship scheme. 

Our apprentices receive a holistic education, that embraces academic study, on the job experience and essential life skills. 

Additionally, our Education Hub carries free curriculum-linked resources that can be downloaded to support classroom, group or home learning. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

People - Having a workforce that represents our communities

Initiatives

We are working hard to create an inclusive workplace environment where diversity is celebrated and women feel empowered, and in pursuit of this have set out key targets to grow our representation of female colleagues and colleagues from minority ethnic groups. 

As we strive for a better gender balance within our workforce, we are also keenly focused on inspiring female pupils to join the energy workforce of tomorrow. Alongside our offer of work experience placements for students of all genders, we offer opportunities exclusively for groups of girls, with the aim of providing a space in which they feel more comfortable and confident.

Our ‘Women empowered’ Colleague Resource Group connects women throughout the business, providing a network that enables female colleagues to inspire eachother to be their best and reach their potential. 

Our Inclusivity and Respecting Everyone Policies set out our commitment to ensuring all colleague voices are heard and everyone treats eachother with dignity, respect, fairness and acceptance. Additionally, we are committed to reporting annually on our gender pay gap and on our approach to tackling modern slavery. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Environment - Reducing our environmental impact 

Environment - Optimising resources & reducing waste

Environment - Enhancing our natural environment 

Initiatives 

Water use and consumption at SP Electricity North West largely comprises domestic use in our offices and depots, though we also use water for cleaning vehicles at our depots.  

Our Environment Action Plan sets out our goals for and approach to managing our environmental responsibilities throughout the present licensing period to March 2028. The Plan includes a goal for us to be responsible consumers of water and to ‘reduce the water consumption per colleague during RIIO-ED2’. 

Additionally, we actively manage the risk of water contamination arising from leaks of oil from the  fluid filled cables on our network. Cables can become more susceptible to leaks as they age, so our asset replacement programme is key to minimising the risk of water contamination.  

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Customers - Supporting customers in understanding future energy and the low carbon transition

Customers – Delivering cost effective and reliable energy now and for the future

Environment - Driving down our carbon emissions and becoming net zero 

Initiatives 

We are making the North West's electricity network ready for a greener, more sustainable future. We are doing this by investing in new equipment, technology and innovation. By investing now, we are enabling our customers to make the switch to low carbon technologies like electric vehicles, safe in the knowledge that the network will be able to meet the extra demand and continue to provide a safe and reliable electricity supply.  

Our social DSO strategy provides a clear framework for ensuring the energy transition benefits everyone – focusing on decarbonisation, creating economic value but delivering societal benefits at the same time. We call this ‘DSO for good’. As part of our social DSO strategy we have expanded our Social DSO Fund to distribute investment and opportunities more fairly across the region. 

Our Take Charge programme provides free advice for customers who want to explore low carbon technology, while our Environment Action Plan sets out our ambitions for net zero as a business.  

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

People - Having a workforce that represents our community

People - Supporting the wellbeing of our colleagues  

People - Embedding a safety-first culture

People - Being a responsible employer

Corporate Governance – Transparency and Governance

Initiatives 

Our capital delivery programme is delivering the investment needed to strengthen the electricity network, improve reliability, support low carbon technologies, and create a cleaner, greener, more resilient energy future to meet the needs of our communities and support economic growth in our region. We work closely with local authorities in the region to support their plans for economic growth and decarbonisation. 

Our award-winning apprenticeship scheme provides exceptional training and early careers support to young people entering the industry.  

We continue to take a proactive role in raising awareness of modern slavery both within our operations and across our supply chain. All new colleagues have received modern slavery awareness training through the corporate induction process.  

Our commitment to providing decent work for our colleagues has been recognised by several external certifiers, including our commitment to providing a real living wage, Investors in People accreditation and Investors in Wellbeing.  

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments

Customer - Delivering cost effective and reliable energy now and for the future

Initiatives

We are developing ground-breaking, flexible, innovative solutions for our electricity network, driven by the changing needs of our customers in a low carbon future. We collaborate with suppliers, partners and universities to deliver these solutions. 

Our approach to innovation is to maximise the use of our existing network, and combine new technology and creative thinking to provide real solutions to real problems.

Key projects include: 

• Smart Street: By controlling network voltage, we enable our networks and customers’ appliances to operate more efficiently, facilitating the adoption of low carbon technologies. 
• CLASS: Our award-winning project successfully demonstrates that cutting edge voltage control can reduce demand for electricity, without customers noticing a difference to their supply. 

Our innovation strategy sets our values, why we innovate for our customers and how we ensure we deliver value for them through a series of innovative projects. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

People - Having a workforce that represents our community

Transparency and Governance

Intiatives

We are a Real Living Wage Employer and continue to encourage suppliers to ensure that their employees are similarly rewarded fairly for their work. 

We’re proud to offer a competitive rewards and benefits package that we know, through participation in reward working groups, benchmarks well against others in the sector. 

We publish a gender pay gap report annually. We do not have a gender pay gap for employees aged under 25, and we have a much smaller pay gap (approx. 6%) for those between the ages of 25 to 35, which reflects our efforts to target change through recruitment.  

Improving the diversity of our business is a key priority that will ensure that we are best placed to support the customers and communities we serve. We take a holistic approach to promoting diversity – from attraction and recruitment of talent, through to leadership and the inclusive culture we foster. 

Our colleague-led resource groups (CRGs) connect colleagues with shared lived experiences and provide a safe space for colleagues to discuss issues and to support the business in its consideration of work policies, health and wellbeing and other improvements.  

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Customer - Supporting customers understanding future energy and the low carbon transition

Environment - Optimising resources & reducing waste

Environment - Enhancing our natural environment 

Environment - Driving down our carbon emissions and becoming net zero

Initiatives

We work collaboratively and strategically with Local Authorities in the North West around local area energy planning and to better understand their priorities and future needs, to help push forward our shared ambitions for green growth and net zero.  

We have developed a training programme that has been specifically designed to improve energy literacy and help local authorities plan their decarbonisation journey. 

Our ongoing investment is designed to strengthen the electricity network, improve reliability, support low carbon technologies, and create a cleaner, greener, more resilient energy future to meet the needs of our communities. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Environment - Optimising resources & reducing waste

Supply chain and partners 

Initiatives 

We are committed to minimising resource use and waste at every stage of our operations and have ambitiours targets in place for reuse, recycling and landfill avoidance as set out in our Environment Action Plan. 

Our Central Oil Reprocessing Department (CORD) remains the only facility of its kind in the industry. Dirty oil from our assets is taken and reprocessed into clean oil to be used again within our network reducing the need to dispose of and source new oil. A high percentage of the oil we collect is reused, delivering not only significant environmental benefits but economic benefits too. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Environment - Driving down our carbon emissions and becoming net zero

Customer - Delivering cost effective and reliable energy now and for the future

Customer - Supporting customer in understanding future energy and the low carbon transition

Initiatives

We are committed to achieving net zero within our own operations by 2038 and have set Science Based Targets (SBTi) to reduce emissions in line with this commitment, that place only minimal reliance on offsetting up to 2035.  

We have invested in building climate change knowledge and capacity within the business and were the first DNO to achieve silver accreditation in Carbon Literacy Training with an aim to work towards gold in the future. 

Our approach to climate action also focuses on customers’ mitigation – helping them to reduce their emissions by providing infrastructure which enables them to be part of the net zero economy and providing free advice on low carbon technologies.  

We also focus on adaptation – ensuring our network continues to perform effectively and efficiently as the climate changes.  

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments 

Environment - Enhancing our natural environment 

Initiatives

We are responsible for protecting, managing and improving biodiversity across our sites and have made significant progress against the biodiversity commitments set out in our Environmental Action Plan. 

We have identified 100 sites across our network where we are proactively managing the habitat to enhance biodiversity and we are committed to: 

• Planting 10,000 trees per year over the current licensing period. 
• Gathering data on the different species of plants, animals, and birds on our sites that will help us build a comprehensive profile for better assessment, maintenance, 
  and improvement. 
• Continuing to support the three National Parks and four Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in our region. 

Relevant Responsible Business Commitments

Corporate Governance – Being a responsible, high performing, transparent and ethical strong institution.

Initiatives

Stakeholder engagement is at the centre of our responsible business approach. We are committed to engaging with our stakeholders on the issues that matter to them and working with them to co-create our plans. This engagement is essential to ensure that, when we move forward, we do so together; that we have the best and widest range of opinions and ideas shaping our approach; and that we are held accountable for our performance. 

Our stakeholder engagement process is based around the AA1000 principles of inclusivity, materiality, responsiveness and impact. Central to this are seven stakeholder advisory panels, comprising representatives of NGOs, civil society and business, plus an extensive programme of bilateral engagement, events and webinars. Our Independent Stakeholder Group, with the support of the panels, provides Ofgem with independent scrutiny of our business plan and its ongoing delivery. 

We are committed to a high level of corporate governance commensurate with its status as a public interest entity.